STAFFING AND WORKPLACE BLOG -- SCOTT SUTTELL

Ohio's workers' comp bureau enters the 21st century

Blog Entry: November 28, 2012 4:30 AM | Author: SCOTT SUTTELL

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation is trying to make things a little easier on employers.

The bureau has launched an online tool that helps employers navigate and manage the details of their workers' compensation insurance policy. The “My Policy Page” at the bureau's website allows most employers to view policy, rating plan and claims information instantly. It also displays each employer's program eligibility to highlight any premium-saving opportunities they may be missing, according to the bureau.

Employers without an online profile can create one at the website, OhioBWC.com.

“We've made a priority of improving service to better meet the needs of our customers, and that includes simplifying the process of communicating and conducting business with us,” said BWC administrator/CEO Steve Buehrer in a statement.

Employers will be directed automatically to the page after logging in to their BWC e-account. They then can report payroll and pay premium, reprint coverage certificates, check balances outstanding, update demographic and contact information, and receive updates on deadlines.

Among the other features they can view:

Current program participation and eligibility for other premium discount programs.

Claims history and details about specific claims. (A search function allows an employer to look up claims by date of injury, status, or benefit type.)

Quarterly claims costs, as well as any costs associated with claims that occur during a specified range of dates. This function also allows the creation of a downloadable report in Microsoft Excel.

Streamlining is in order

Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants to bring order to the state's mashup of job-training programs.

Columbus Business First reports the Kasich administration “will take some immediate steps to improve Ohio's work force development system, including a rebranding of the one-stop employment centers scattered around the state.”

The centers — essentially, entry points for people trying to find jobs — will be tied to the OhioMeansJobs brand within the next 30 days, says John Weber, a deputy director at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Servcies.

Columbus Business First reports that Mr. Weber on Monday told Gov. Kasich's new Executive Workforce Board that the rebranding strategy will create consistency across the state for the 90 one-stop centers and OhioMeansJobs, a partnership between Job and Family Services and the resume services of Monster Worldwide Inc.

The agency will encourage the use of OhioMeansJobs.com as the sole source for job searches and as a resource for applying for unemployment benefits, according to the story.

At present, the state's work force development system has about 90 programs scattered across 13 state agencies.

Good career move

CNNMoney.com profiles Twitter's president of global revenue, who turns out to have Cleveland roots.

Adam Bain, 39, “started his career in news at one of the first regional city guides, Cleveland.com, and then spent two years as a web producer at the Los Angeles Times before he joined News Corp. in 1999,” according to the story.

He joined Twitter in August 2010, when the microblogging platform “had a $3.7 billion valuation but no obvious business model.”

Today, with 140 million active users, Twitter has “become a staple for advertisers,” Fortune says. “It is expected to pull in $288 million in ad revenue this year, according to eMarketer, a 107% jump over 2011, and is now valued at $8 billion.”

CNNMoney.com says Mr. Bain's next move is a “self-service tool for small businesses,” but as with the company's slow-to-emerge ad products, “he is taking his time to learn from competitors before releasing it widely.”

Time is money

A company called Bolt Insurance has issued a report, ”Wasting Away: The State of Workplace Productivity,” that estimates the country experiences an annual payroll loss of $134 billion from employees spending time on tasks that are not work-related. (So, my Internet time spent to find this little gem — not a waste!)

You'd probably think the Internet is the big time-waster, but this report claims that's not so:

Meetings are the No. 1 source of wasted time, followed by office politics and annoying coworkers.

$1.1 billion per week is lost because of time spent by employees on fantasy sports.

Only 1 in 5 workers kill time on the job because they are underpaid. Usually, it's because they do not have enough responsibility.

I have no idea if these numbers are remotely accurate, but they're fun. (And there are a lot more of them in Bolt's spiffy graphic.)

Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Crain's Cleveland Business. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. Comments may be used in the print edition at editorial discretion.